How could eBay be AHEAD of USPS???

[gurlcat]

@iamalwaysright  I considered tacking this onto your "teleportation" thread about eBay showing extremely over-optimistic estimated delivery dates to buyers lately, but I don't know if this is related or not.  -Probably not, but it's certainly something I've never seen before, and I watch tracking an embarrassing amount.  

Tuesday I bought an item, didn't realize the seller lived in my own state until after I paid, and then saw that they shipped immediately, YIPPEE!!    But now it's past 3 AM into Wednesday and something's 'off.'   In the past whenever the tracking didn't match between eBay and USPS, it would always be USPS that was "ahead", which makes sense, since they're relaying THEIR data to eBay.  And eBay would typically 'catch up' in 15 minutes or so. -I believe I've seen others here make that same observation. 

But this time it's reversed.  Here's the USPS tracking screen when clicked from eBay, followed by the same tracking on the USPS website but logged into my Informed Delivery account, and then I also checked on Google too (just out of curiosity -they're a third party, just like eBay is).  -None of them show any scans past 1:24 PM Tuesday in Chelsea.






But here's eBay's tracking.  Chelsea IS near Birmingham so it would make sense for that to be the next scan, but why does only eBay say it already happened, at 11:25 PM?    Yall don't suppose they are doing preemptive scans now, do you?  

[gurlcat]

Aaaaand OF COURSE as soon as I finished writing the post, it updates on USPS!  It waited well over four hours for me to make a fool of myself, before finally updating!   🤣

So nevvvver mind.  Well kind-of.  -eBay is still a full scan ahead, because now they're showing a departure from Birmingham.  Again I've just never witnessed eBay showing stuff ahead of 'the source' before.  Anyway at least they're not just making it up!

[liawri-75]

Gurlcat, this is a nothingburger concern.  Your order is on the way.  Don't worry if EB is in sync with USPS.

[gurlcat]

I don't suppose you read the other thread I referenced, so you are forgiven for telling me what not to be concerned about.   This wasn't about me as a buyer being anxious about one package, it was more of a concern about eBay causing unnecessary rifts between buyers and sellers.  

[dhbookds]

Could be just a delay in transferring info?

[jonathanbrightlight]

@dhbookds that was my thought, the USPS website may be lagging but since eBay gets it via API (I assume) they're getting the raw data before the USPS's own website displays it.  Probably a temporary issue, I have also usually found it's far more likely that eBay's tracking details will lag behind the USPS website.

[gurlcat]

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@jonathanbrightlight wrote:

 I have also usually found it's far more likely that eBay's tracking details will lag behind the USPS website.

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Thank you for affirming that.  And I should note that I observed it immediately after reading iamalwaysright's thread with multiple credible replies from others, about eBay giving buyers unrealistic EDD's.  I don't ever really worry about that because although I live at the 'bottom coast' it's nowhere near as precarious as the far West or East coast.  

Also of note: how often eBay changes the EDD DURING tracking, either with or without a visible record of what the old one was, depending on where you're looking.  And then there's the fact that USPS sometimes SKIPS scans, making it look like no progress is being made.  -So all this combined, it isn't unfathomable that eBay might insert 'speculated' facility scans just to appease buyers, scans that could be programmed to disappear later, if real USPS scans contradicted them.  

Turns out it was a false theory, absolutely, but not 'tinfoil hat' considering the facts and other manipulations eBay uses.  

[12345jamesstamps]

Could be a time zone thing...which there are 3 in the main states.

And then when companies and such open online.

You typed this post out at 2:04 AM...I am in deep sleep...and I don't think Artificial Intelligence has hit the post office yet. eBay has some AI being used...

[asset_liquidators]

I had an issue last year where ebay said a package was delivered. Couldn't find it anywhere, checked tracking on USPS to find it was still in transit with regular tracking updates. It got delivered a day or two later (can't remember which offhand).